April 17-19, 2013, Copenhagen, Int. SAP Conference for Utilities -Less emissions, more energy efficiency combined with innovative service offerings – these are the main advantages of Electric Mobility. Electric Vehicles (EV) are therefore making a significant contribution to global challenges such as climate protection, lack of natural resources, or increasing urbanization.

As this topic has evolved over the years, it is clear that a real breakthrough can only be made if all the relevant industries and disciplines collaborate.

A great deal of convergent evolutions between the various infrastructures like traffic (smart traffic), energy and charging infrastructure (smart grid) and electric vehicles (smart car) are already taking place.

It is therefore obvious that SAP must continue to participate in this developing market and provide solutions or supporting technology to drive these topics forward.

We currently once again find ourselves in a phase of converging industries. This also means that large companies in particular are offering largely similar services, even if their key competencies were previously different.

This is because the original business is either shrinking or other “external influencers” are having a major impact on their business, therefore forcing these companies to find new business opportunities.

The answer to the question of how the affected industries will make money in the future is somewhat clearer: by providing innovative services to their customers - the faster, the better.

One of the industries currently undergoing this transformation is the utilities industry. The energy turnaround followed by the democratization of energy production in the industrialized countries is forcing utility companies to build smart grids. Smart vehicles are the second major trend in the automotive industry. Cars have become a rolling data hub that can both send and receive technical and business data, but increasingly can deal with lifestyle data.

The third pillar – traffic planning and management - was previously always driven by the governments.

The progression of urbanization, the rising number of vehicles, the mobility needs of the people brings both more pollution and more traffic jams. The need to actively contribute to that phenomenon is to provide an infrastructure that is capable of mitigating these symptoms: the introduction of smart traffic.

But what has Electric Mobility to do with all this?

Electric Mobility works as catalyst for all three categories mentioned above, since it requires all three to run properly. It is seen as a breakthrough innovation. The strength of the existing car technologies currently continues to dominate.

However, the innovation topics brought by Electric Mobility cannot yet be projected directly and in a way that would enable car manufacturers to remain world market leaders (especially the German ones).

And what role do utility companies play in this game?

Whilst no one can argue that electric cars have the potential to benefit both the air and the planet, they are also forcing utilities to come to terms with so-called smart grids.

Electric grids as we currently know them are already largely operating at maximum capacity and are simply not designed to handle the load. As more governments promote the use of electric cars through mandates, tax breaks, and other mechanisms, utilities will need to figure out how to deliver power to those cars reliably and efficiently—without cutting further into their already razor-thin profit margins. Not an easy task when you consider that utilities will need to do more than simply put power through a wire; they must also service (and perhaps create) an electric version of the gas station network that has been in place for 100 years. Clearly, the grid will need to get smarter. And not just because of electric cars.

Where can I discuss this topic with peers and SAP colleagues, and where can I see some of SAP’s solution portfolio in that area?

Electric Mobility is one of our hot topics at our SAP Cloud for Utilities booth, where you can inform yourself about jump starting the creation and launch ofnew service offerings, support for new business models, and can actively engage with EV drivers and charging networks to accurately forecast and meet growing demands for infrastructure and energy. Moreover, we have a live play demonstrating how to charge and bill your customers driving an EV whilst using public charging stations. Finally, you can discuss questions such as “why are utilities still not keen on the topic?”, “what is the main reason, why utilities should engage with ElectricMobility?”, “will utilities start moving from the time when enough EV are on our roads?” directly with your peers and SAP experts.

Round Table Discussion

This session will discuss what utility companies should do today to prepare for the Electro Mobility market adoption. Specific topics will include the provisioning of value-added services for Electric Vehicle (EV) drivers, setting up and operating the necessary infrastructure, analyzing the true impact on the grid, and leveraging the sustainability impact.

Live Theater

Electric Vehicles will be part of our future. SAP enables mass market deployment of Electric Mobility by providing a flexible, high-volume billing solution for micro payments. This demo shows the great benefits of SAP Bill-to-Cash Management for Electromobility, developed by SAP Next Business & Technology, SAP Co-Innovation Lab, IBU Utilities and IBU Automotive. The billing solution helps electric mobility providers (EVSPs) to bill their customers based on highly dynamic price plans. Thereby, EVSPs can offer their customers the best and most flexible conditions.